In our sailing class last year, the instructor briefly touched on the subject of bringing the boat to a stop in the shortest possible time. But neither my wife nor I can remember what he said the maneuver was!

Would it simply be heaving to?

Heaving to is a process for stopping the boat...but not the quickest. The quickest maneuver is rapid port-starboard full movement of the rudder, naturally combined with luffing the sails. On a boat like a Colgate 26, which has a rudder which can be turned 360 degrees, a couple of repeated 90 degree swings stops the boat almost immediately.

Thanks Jackdale, Much better diagram, I'm also more familiar with being hove to while picking up as opposed to luffing up as shown on the US Sailing site. I've recovered more hats, gloves, camera bags and fenders than people, keep hoping for the bag of money that fell off a southbound panga.

Heaving to is a process for stopping the boat...but not the quickest. The quickest maneuver is rapid port-starboard full movement of the rudder, naturally combined with luffing the sails. On a boat like a Colgate 26, which has a rudder which can be turned 360 degrees, a couple of repeated 90 degree swings stops the boat almost immediately.

Ha! None of that would work on my boat.. it'd just ignore your rudder and sail movements and keep going.

Heave-to seems to be something that works on ALL boats (not just pocket racers) from Tall Ships downwards perhaps why it is taught to be the quickest.

__________________
-"Honestly, I don't know why seamen persist in getting wrecked in some of the outlandish places they do, when they can do it in a nice place like Fiji." -- John Caldwell, "Desperate Voyage"

I've never seen Heave-To taught as the quickest way to stop a boat. I teach at a lot nonprofit and we teach it as the best way to stop the boat for a long period of time. That is also how I use it, we go hove-to if we want a lunch break, need to reef the main, or otherwise need a break.

Where I teach we use safety position (come up beyond close hauled, release sails) as a quick way to stop the boat, but not a way to stop it on a dime. We teach rudder braking/tight turns as a quick way to slow down the boat (especially while docking).

We've moved away from the Quick Stop/Jybe Around style of MOB to Figure-8. It is safer not to jybe in the conditions where you might have lost someone overboard. I'll have to try jackdale's version where you leave the sails tightly trimmed on a few boats and see how it works for me.

We've found the Quickstop method to work fastest, though you do need the room to do the maneuver. Whatever point of sail you're on, tack and circle 'round. We've done this with the spinnaker up in 15 knots of wind, as well as with other sail/wind combinations. It puts the boat pretty much back where you were, ready to do something else. What you do after that - luffing, heaving to, dropping sails, picking up a MOB or a mooring, is up to you.

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